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De Anza mobile homes pushed out of Mission Bay
Is it greedy to take back OUR PUBLIC PARKLAND from a use that should never have been allowed to occur? The true story is that De Anza is on OUR PUBLIC PARKLAND and was illegal from the get-go. Private residential use of parkland is illegal under State law and the City Charter of San Diego. Do you really think it okay that someone can claim a right to live in a public park in perpetuity? How would you feel if this was in Balboa Park? Yosemite? The Kapiloff Bill (1981) was not to force the residents out but to enable them to remain until November, 2003, when the master lease with the City expired. Residents were sub-lessees to the Master Lessee, De Anza Corporation; each resident owned the mobile home and paid rent to the Master Lessee for the parcel their home was on. The City had no obligation to pay for moving when the lease, and the provisions of the Kapiloff Bill, expired. Since when has a landlord (in this case, TAXPAYERS) been obligated to pay moving expenses of a tenant whose lease expires? The Court's decision was not that the City must pay residents' costs to move but that the City must do an "impact study" for the residents regarding conversion of De Anza back to its legal use as public parkland. The Court also required the City to pay damages for the City's bad choice of security/management company once the lease expired with De Anza Corporation. The residents of 1981 and all subsequent owners of these "mobile homes" were clearly informed of the 2003 expiration date, after which their continued residential use would be unlawful under State law and City Charter. In later years, some owners lived elsewhere and sublet their mobile home, in effect profiting from renting our public parkland to a third party. By the 1990s, a large majority of the owners and renters were newcomers but all were informed, through required disclosures when signing a lease with De Anza Corporation, of the 2003 expiration date and told they could not remain after that date. Nonetheless, some owners decided that they have a right to remain on our public parkland as long as they wish or that we, the taxpayers, are obligated to pay their costs of moving if they do not remain. Now does this make sense? The writer does, however, have it absolutely right that the City has handled this situation badly from the very beginning. You & I get to pay for the City's failure to handle things in a reasonable and business-like manner, and we still have not regained our public parkland, over 50 years after the City originally leased the property for development of an RV camping facility.— September 16, 2011 12:30 p.m.
Plastic bags block La Jolla kelp beds
I thoroughly enjoyed the story about the Urban Tumbleweed - the writer has an excellent turn of phrase that brought a grin several times. The timeline for plastic bags was fascinating but I was distressed to learn of the ecological impacts of these bags, especially in the ocean. Considering current concerns about oil prices & availability, I would like to have seen a bit more emphasis on the front-end costs of these bags and other disposable items which are, basically, petroleum products. As a student abroad many years ago, I discovered the String Bag and still use them for much of my shopping - they are almost weightless, stretch like you wouldn't believe, and I can hang a full bag from my shoulder, reducing the strain of hand-carrying it when loaded. As for hemp, people need to get over their prejudice - hemp is not marijuana and does not contain THC levels of marijuana! It has been used for millennia for many purposes, particularly for the fiber, and not for recreational or medicinal drug purposes. Check out the article in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemp— September 12, 2008 3:17 p.m.